Woman, 95, faces second care home move due to cuts

Glynis Whitelegg (right) with her mother Willina Richardson, and brothers David (left) and Stuart Richardson (back right)

The daughter of a 95-year-old woman who faces being forced out of her council-run care home for the second time due to budget cuts says her family has been left devastated by the situation.

Willina Richardson, who has dementia and is registered blind, was previously a resident of Goyt Valley House in New Mills, Derbyshire, before it was closed by the county council.

She has lived at Whitestones Care Home in Chapel-en-le-Frith since 2022 - but that home is now among another set of facilities earmarked for closure.

"It's devastating to go through this again," her daughter Glynis Whitelegg told the BBC. "I can't believe they're doing this again."

A total of 11 Derbyshire County Council-run care homes and eight day centres are at risk of closure. A final decision is due next month.

Adult social care has been identified as forming the bulk of the Conservative-run authority's financial pressures.

'Sense of disquiet'

Ms Whitelegg says the previous move from Goyt Valley, where her mother had lived for three years, had severely affected her physical and mental health.

"She keeps saying, 'do I live here now? I live here now, don't I?' She knows her way round [Whitestones] now, she's settled.

"She's been left with a sense of disquiet from the previous move. Goyt Valley wasn't a care home, it was a home.

"It's inhumane. It's not fair to treat people like this. I suppose they don't expect people to live that long," Ms Whitelegg said.

Unions and opposition councillors have voiced their opposition to the plans

Ms Whitelegg said there were a handful of other residents she was aware of also facing a second move in recent years.

She fears her mother will not survive another relocation, and has so far avoided telling her about the closure plans, for fear of what it might do to her health.

Ms Whitelegg says there are "no options left" this time, as the family cannot afford private care for her mother.

The family say the cheapest private home they can find in the local area is about £1,000 a week, which would be unaffordable for her and her siblings, who are all of pension age.

'No care whatsoever'

It is possible, the family says, that Mrs Richardson is moved further towards Derby, which would mean getting very few visits from family, who would be more than an hour's drive away in the High Peak, with some saying they would not be able to visit.

Ms Whitelegg said she was hoping the council would find a solution, but that she had been left in limbo due to what she called a lack of clear communication.

"The council have treated us without any care whatsoever," she added.

A spokesperson for Derbyshire County Council said: "We understand this is an unsettling time for residents and their families and we'd like to reassure them that no decisions have yet been taken on the future of any of our care homes.

"We're currently looking at all the feedback we've received as part of the consultation, which will be fully taken into consideration in a further report which is due to be considered by our cabinet in November."